2 Raja-raja 2:4

2:4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” ¹  But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.

2 Raja-raja 2:6

2:6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together.

2 Raja-raja 4:10

4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room ²  and furnish it with ³  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

2 Raja-raja 5:8

5:8 When Elisha the prophet ⁴  heard that the king had torn his clothes, he sent this message to the king, “Why did you tear your clothes? Send him ⁵  to me so he may know there is a prophet in Israel.”

2 Raja-raja 5:17

5:17 Naaman said, “If not, then please give your servant a load of dirt, enough for a pair of mules to carry, ⁶  for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. ⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ⁸  responded to the prophet, ⁹  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ¹⁰  Elisha ¹¹  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 7:6

7:6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!”

2 Raja-raja 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ¹³  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ¹⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 7:19

7:19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ¹⁵  Elisha ¹⁶  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ¹⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 10:24

10:24 They went inside to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside. He had told them, “If any of the men inside get away, you will pay with your lives!” ¹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 11:12

11:12 Jehoiada ¹⁹  led out the king’s son and placed on him the crown and the royal insignia. ²⁰  They proclaimed him king and poured olive oil on his head. ²¹  They clapped their hands and cried out, “Long live the king!”

2 Raja-raja 13:19

13:19 The prophet ²²  got angry at him and said, “If you had struck the ground five or six times, you would have annihilated Syria! ²³  But now, you will defeat Syria only three times.”

2 Raja-raja 14:9

14:9 King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal ²⁴  of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn. ²⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 16:7

16:7 Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your dependent. ²⁶  March up and rescue me from the power ²⁷  of the king of Syria and the king of Israel, who have attacked ²⁸  me.”

2 Raja-raja 17:15

17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. ²⁹  They paid allegiance to ³⁰  worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. ³¹  They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ³² 

2 Raja-raja 18:32

18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.”

2 Raja-raja 21:8

21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ³³  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

[2:4]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[4:10]  ² tn Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה, this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”

[4:10]  ³ tn Heb “and let’s put there for him.”

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 15, 20).

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “Let him come.”

[5:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and [if] not, may there be given to your servant a load [for] a pair of mules, earth.”

[5:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “for your servant will not again make a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, only to the Lord.”

[7:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

[7:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “man of God.”

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ¹² tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

[7:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

[7:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[7:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.

[7:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

[7:19]  tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.

[10:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, [it will be] his life in place of his life.”

[11:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’edut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת.

[11:12]  ²¹ tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”

[13:19]  ²² tn Heb “man of God.”

[13:19]  ²³ tn Heb “[It was necessary] to strike five or six times, then you would strike down Syria until destruction.” On the syntax of the infinitive construct, see GKC 349 §114.k.

[14:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the animal of the field.”

[14:9]  ²⁵ sn Judah is the thorn in the allegory. Amaziah’s success has deceived him into thinking he is on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he is not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).

[16:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “son.” Both terms (“servant” and “son”) reflect Ahaz’s subordinate position as Tiglath-pileser’s subject.

[16:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “hand, palm.”

[16:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “who have arisen against.”

[17:15]  ²⁹ tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

[17:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

[17:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

[17:15]  ³² tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

[21:8]  ³³ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”